1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns benzopyran phenol derivates or mixtures thereof for use as antibacterial, antiviral or immunostimulating agents, a process for preparing a mixture of such derivates and a composition for human or veterinary use containing at least one of these derivates.
2. Description of the Related Art
The benzopyran phenol derivates according to the invention can be derived from propolis. The ethanol extract of propolis can be used as prophylaxis against inflammations caused by certain viral infections (influenza, herpes) and is used as an inflammatory agent.
Propolis, also known as bee glue, is a natural product of bees. Bees collect propolis on the buds and other parts of plants, using it in their habitat to block up holes and cracks and to isolated foreign bodies (insects and other living creatures) in the hive, thus preventing the spread of infections. It is also used by the bees to coat the cells of the honeycomb before storing their products such as honey and pollen in the honeycomb cells.
Propolis is a specific complex bioactive substance consisting of more than 60 compounds. The basis components are different resins, waxes, ethereal oils, ethereal oils and pollen. In addition, major bioactive ingredients of propolis are vegetable dyes, of which the most important are the flavones or yellow dyes such as chrysin or tectochrysin, flavonones such as pinostrombin, and quercetin and their derivatives, and also flavonols such as rhamnocitrin, galangin and isoalpinin. It also contains aromatic substances such as isovanillin and acetoxybetulinol, and aromatic acids such as cinnamic acid, benzoic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid and protacatechuic acid with their esters with benzyl alcohol, pentanol phenylethyl alcohol and cinnamyl alcohol (E. M. Schneidewind, A. Brige, H. Kala, J. Metzner, and A. Zsunke, in Die Pharmazie No. 34, 1979, 103). Some substances listed may exert an antimicrobial and fungistatic effect; however, neither pinocembrin nor pinobanksin-3-acetate had been known to be present in propolis, nor have they been shown to have the activity according to the invention herein.